Tin Star Read Online Free PDF

plant was the only thing I owned. It was the only beautiful thing in the cargo bay and though it would probably save me to sell it, I could not let it go.
    “I’ll give you a hot meal and some currency on your chit,” Heckleck said.
    I pulled the plant closer to me and crossed my arms around it on the ground in front of me as though I were guarding it behind a wall. I could see by his movements that he wanted the plant very much. It was probably worth more than he was offering.
    “No,” I whispered.
    “Did you say no ?” Heckleck asked. “Your Universal Galactic is terrible.”
    I shook my head from side to side.
    “Yes. Good. Good to do business with you,” he said reaching for the plant.
    I pulled the plant up into my arms and cradled it.
    “I said NO!” I shouted. It used up the last of my energy. I was blind with hunger. I was wiped.
    Heckleck groaned in pain and then all I could see was his mouth coming toward me. He extruded his tongue, which looked like a sharp pointy barb, and injected my arm. I dropped the plant and tried to scramble away. I felt the barb sting my arm and immediately I felt nauseous. I looked back at Heckleck. He was not reaching for the plant; instead, he was calmly looking at me, rubbing his little wings, which made a mournful sound.
    My head ached, and I felt hot. Had Heckleck killed me? Perhaps he was like an insect on Earth, calmly waiting for paralysis to set in before he finished me off at his leisure, picking off parts of me when needed. If I had been agreeable, I could have lived.
    But maybe it was for the best that he’d killed me.
    Maybe it was better that he ended my life over a pretty plant. Maybe this insect-like alien had done me a kindness. After all, I had just thought about killing myself and had been too cowardly to do it.
    I looked around the cargo bay. Through the window, I could see that we’d rotated back, making Quint, the planet below, visible. I figured I would fix my gaze on it. Staring at it while I died would be like sending a hopeful wish out to the universe. It was an image to hang on to. At least I’d gone somewhere. At least I’d seen something extraordinary. A whole other world. A different sun.
    The station PA system blared, as it always had, the announcer speaking too quickly for me to understand. I began to sweat profusely. The ringing in my ears became louder until I thought it would make my head explode, and then everything seemed to pause. I felt clear; my breathing became easier, and the words spilling forth from the PA began to make more precise sense:
    “Station Time 1800 hours. Full newscast available on the O-ring. Remember to always wash your extremities for health safety. Current station alert is yellow.”
    I looked around surprised.
    “What’s going on?” I said. My head had a sharp pain, which then subsided. I could feel my brain changing.
    “It’s working. Good,” Heckleck said. “So, what do you want for the plant?”
    There was a slight delay, like an echo in my brain, but then I could understand him perfectly. There was no accent.
    “You stabbed me!” I said. I was forming words in Universal Galactic naturally, almost as though I had spoken it fluently, instead of haltingly, my whole life.
    “Oh, don’t be ridiculous. I injected you with some of my nanites so I could understand you,” Heckleck said. “I’m glad I did; the nonaltered frequency of your voice was just about killing me.”
    “I feel strange,” I said.
    But I could understand him in a more precise way than I had before he’d stabbed me. And more important, I could now breathe freely without the mask. I ripped it off of my face and threw it to the ground. Without it binding me, I felt curiously free.
    “The nanites are reproducing. Just calm down. Try to breathe normally. Relax. Once they reach their maximum, your body will normalize. Right now they are multiplying.”
    “Do you sting many people?” I asked.
    “Usually I sting to kill, not to